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Oracle this afternoon posted results for its fiscal second quarter ended November 30 that were slightly ahead of Street expectations.

For the quarter, the enterprise software giant reported revenue of $9.1 billion, up 3% from a year ago, and slightly ahead of the Street at $9.03 billion. Guidance had been for an increase of zero to 4%. Non-GAAP profits were 64 cents a share, ahead of the Street at 61 cents, and just above the guidance range of 59-63 cents. On a GAAP basis, the company earned 53 cents a share.

Other key metrics:

New software license and cloud software subscription revenue was up 17% to $2.4 billion; the gain in constant currency was 18%.

Software license update and product support revenue was up 7% to $4.3 billion, or up 8% in constant currency.

Hardware systems revenue was $734 million, down 23%.

Hardware systems support revenue was $587 million, down 6%, or down 5% in constant currency.

Oracle said that currency factors reduced profits by a penny a share on both a GAAP and non-GAAP basis.

"Q2 performance was strong and broad based as all geographies reported double-digit revenue growth in new software license and cloud subscriptions," Oracle President Mark Hurd said in a statement. "Applications, middleware and database all had double-digit growth in new software license and cloud subscriptions, with applications leading the pack with growth of over 30%."

In late trading, ORCL is up 78 cents, or 2.4%, to $33.64.

Update: On the company's post-report conference call, President and CFO Safra Catz said they had an "excellent quarter," beating guidance. In the quarter, the company bought back 96.1 million shares for a total of $3 billion.

Catz said the company for the third quarter sees revenues up 1% to 5%, or 2%-6% in constant currency, from the year ago quarter, with non-GAAP profits of 64-68 cents a share, or 51-55 cents on a GAAP basis. Street consensus had been for revenue of $9.46 billion - up 4.3% - with profits of 66 cents.